A Study Of Russell’s Theory Of Descriptions

Russell’s theory of descriptions had a profound impact on the development of philosophy of language.Generally speaking,Russell’s research on descriptions can be divided into three stages: the first stage is the article "On Denotation" published in1905.In this paper,Russell made a preliminary study on referential phrases,especially focused on the limited descriptions with referential function.Focusing on the distinction between proper names,qualified descriptions,and unqualified descriptions,Russell pointed out that there are a large number of disguised proper names（such as "Jinshan"）in traditional philosophy,which are abbreviated descriptions.The essence of description is a function expression with space,and it does not have independent meaning and reference.Russell solved the three major philosophical problems that have plagued philosophers for a long time by rewriting the description into a series of expressions of predicates and restrictive quantifiers.The "empty reference concept" problem.The second stage is the article "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" published in 1918,in which Russell continued the emphasis on qualifying quantifiers in "On Descriptive Predicates".The third stage was the book "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy" published in 1919,in which Russell devoted a chapter to the rewriting of description propositions.In addition,Russell’s theory of descriptions is also found in many of his papers and writings.In the article "Knowledge and Descriptive Knowledge",Russell discusses in detail the basis for the epistemological distinction between proper names and descriptions.Russell believes that the role of proper names is to identify a unique individual,and the unique individual is related to the "special aspect" of kinship,and kinship is the epistemological basis of proper names.And because the range of objects that we can truly know is extremely limited,in general,the understanding of things must be done with the help of descriptions with a descriptive function,and the boundaries between common proper names and descriptions are gradually blurred.The real proper name is only a logical possibility,which is set up to refer to the object strictly,and the logically strict proper name is only "this"（this）and "that"（that）.Russell’s theory of descriptions completely solved the problem of "empty reference concept" left by Frege,and continued Frege’s practice of applying logical methods to philosophical analysis.Three groups of philosophical difficulties that have plagued philosophers for a long time are: The first-order predicate calculus has been dissolved,and its description theory has been called the "paradigm of philosophy",so that Russell’s description theory became the "official" reference theory in the following 30 years.The follow-up development of description theory by modern and contemporary philosophers is divided into two directions: continuing to study form and semantics-such as Searle;turning to emphasizing the role of pragmatics-such as Strawson,Donnellan,etc.But from the general trend,the research combined with context and pragmatics is the general trend of the development of reference theory.Russell’s descriptions provide a new field of discourse（such as "meaning","reference"）and technical basis for the development of philosophy of language.The study of descriptions also has great philosophical value,it pushes the development of philosophy to a new stage,and the success of description theory indicates that if philosophy introduces new methods,it may get rid of the vagueness and confusion in traditional philosophy.error.